The Sims Mobile is a decent mobile game that feels mostly like other Simstitles, but mixed with free-to-play management mechanics of something like Kendall and Kylie. For those unfamiliar with these kinds of games, it basically means you’ll be contending with a lot of timers and have to plot things out strategically if you want to progress at a reasonable pace in the game without paying. Here are some tips for how to do exactly that:

Get as many Sims as possible

In The Sims Mobile, you can take control of multiple Sims at once and have them live whatever kind of life you want them to have. Over the course of having your Sims do things like go to work or get in relationships, you’ll earn rewards, complete quests, and get extra goodies and unlockables. In order to get more of these things, your Sims have to do more stuff, and if you have more Sims, you can do more stuff. Try to prioritize getting as many Sims as possible before moving on to buying much of anything else.

Perform side activities to make events go faster

Whenever you launch an activity in The Sims Mobile, the game tells you how long it will take to complete. This isn’t an entirely accurate estimate though. Instead of simply waiting for an event to finish, you can use your Sim to complete little actions that can take time off the timer faster. So, for example, if you’re working a shift in a restaurant, you can do things like prep foods, wash your hands, and more, with each of these actions chipping away at your timer. You can’t repeat these actions infinitely, as there is an energy meter that governs how many side activities you can do, but if you want to push things forward quickly, doing these actions can help move things along faster.

Don’t worry about tapping on collectibles

Whenever you earn money or any other kind of collectible in The Sims Mobile, little pickup items go flying all over the screen. When this happens, you may be tempted to tap on these items to pick them up, but you really don’t need to do that. Everything that pops out on screen gets automatically collected eventually, so you can just focus your tapping on moving your Sims onto their next adventure instead of worrying about tapping to collect your rewards.

Take risks

When taking on certain activities, your Sims might be emboldened to take on a “risky” side activity, which can make your activity timer go down faster than the other, safer side activities. In general, it’s usually a good idea to take on these activities. They can really accelerate your pace through the game, and failing at them usually doesn’t have much of a penalty.

Stretch out events when you’re away from your phone

As part of the different things you can do in The Sims Mobile, you can choose how much you want your Sims to invest in doing any one particular thing at a time. Shorter activities can take about one hour, but there are others that can take four or more hours to complete. These longer activities are the exact kind of thing you want to cue up before bed or other times where you won’t be checking in on the game, whereas the shorter activities are good to take on when trying to push things forward in an active play session.